Which end of long garden do you socialise?

[FireflyJar]

I have a narrow (15 ft) garden which is about 14 fence panels long. I'm terraced so garden is enclosed, and am about to put patio down big enough for a furniture set and BBQ. Which end would you put the patio? Near the back doors and other people's doors or down the end of the garden away from neighbours. Has anyone got real life experience of either, and therefore what downfalls are there for either end?

Depends where the sun / shade / water tap, etc, are.

In the right place to get your preference between sun and shade at the times you are most likely to use it.

The place where the sun is at the time you usually have people over. But I also like to have a place to sit near the exit from the house where you'd naturally come out with a quick coffee or whatever.

When we moved in we used camping chairs for a bit to see where we tended to naturally choose to sit.

Shady near the door, with more sun at the end, but I would get a 3m umbrella as don't like the sun anyway.
Obviously it's easier to bring stuff straight outside if near the door, but it is so narrow I feel it's crowded

I feel the end is more enclosed and cosy

My garden is small, so the question doesn't really arise for me, but if I had room, I would have a small table and chairs near the back door so I could easily take my coffee out for a short break. I would have an area at the end of the garden for larger numbers of people.

Bistro table and chairs near back door and a bigger social patio at the end.

Think about the sun. My predecessors helpfully put a large shed in the only place that gets the evening sunshine.

Garden very similar to this image but I have literally just grass and a couple of bushes, and no pergola!

Our socialising end is at the far end of the garden. But we have a large tree to provide shade. If people are really noisy in a garden then noise would carry but at the end is more considerate to neighbours and your own conversations have more privacy.

But one of the other reasons for us is we have shrubs planted in such a way that if you sit at one end of the garden sofa all you can see is green and a little bamboo screening and not a brick in site. It is very private. Your neighbours would be able to look down on you out of upstairs windows if it’s close to the house.

Our neighbours socialise at the end of the garden which is a bit weird for us when we’re upstairs. They’ve built raised decking that’s all lit up. It’s feels like they’re putting a show in sometimes. So my preference would be close to the house.

I think close to the house wins then!